HEROES & ZEROES

Who guards the guardians

  The cost of financial misconduct in government departments has increased, but reports about such transgressions have dropped. This would be a simple statement if it did not signal the devastating extent of state corruption in South Africa and talk of the moral bankruptcy of senior public servants.   How can those entrusted with state Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Cwele derails progress

  The progress made in the fight against the secrecy bill was reversed this week when State Security Minister Siyabonga Cwele asked MPs to reconsider the decision to scrap a highly contested clause, a move that would further stifle the free flow of information and transparency in South Africa.   Minister Siyabonga Cwele is our Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Vigilance brings results

We’ve a whole bunch of heroes this week, whose collective actions have helped to clean up the mean streets of the city of gold – those civic-minded folk who report, and continue to report, traffic cop bribery and other nefarious act by City officials to Corruption Watch. It was their tip-offs that prompted Corruption Watch Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

We don’t need your ad, minister

“Education is the most powerful weapon you can use to change the world,” South Africa’s first democratically elected president and living icon Nelson Mandela said.   But recently Mandela’s words have sounded increasingly hollow as the Department of Basic Education, under the leadership of Minister Angie Motshekga, has come under fire yet again.   This Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Man gets 15-year jail term for trying to bribe Sars

The South African Revenue Service sent out a stern warning against corruption today with news that a Gauteng man has been slapped a 15-year jail term for trying to bribe and then intimidate one of its officials. On Monday 15 October the Germiston Regional Court sentenced Humphrey Ngundwe to 10 years in jail on a Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Our new crooked celebration

"Do you want to be a 'star' in South Africa? Do you want the media to follow you everywhere you go and to record every word you utter? Do you want your picture to adorn the front pages of newspapers, and your face and voice to get into every household in the country through television?" Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Community action fights corruption in Ehlanzeni

Fed up with reckless state spending, tender fraud and rampant bribery, a community near Nelspruit, Mpumalanga, is showing what group action and proactivity can do to fight corruption. This community is our hero of the week. An anti-corruption strategy was thrashed out at Kruger Lowveld Chamber of Business and Tourism (KLCBT) workshop this week, the Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

You can run, but you can’t hide

  At a media briefing in parliament last month, Public Works Minister Thulas Nxesi sent a stern warning to corrupt individuals: “You can run, but you can’t hide. If you steal from the poor, we are coming to get you.”   This week, Nxesi flexed his muscles by axing the first official in his department, Read more >

HEROES & ZEROES

Getting paid in jail

The former mayor of Rustenburg, Matthew Wolmarans, may not find his prison cell as warm as his last office, but he is still bringing in a monthly salary of R35 000, according to the current mayor, Mpho Khunou. Wolmarans and his driver, Enoch Matshaba, were sent to jail in July for the murder of councillor Read more >